Throughout the course of his career, KING ELVIS earned a total of 20 #1 singles on the Billboard Top/Hot 100, 21 #1 singles on the Cash Box Top 100, and 4 #1 singles on the Record World Top 100. While Billboard magazine has been the "gold standard" and most trusted barometer of success in the record industry for more than 30 years, such was not the case in Elvis' lifetime. Rather, Cash Box was the most respected chart magazine throughout the 60's, and Record World, which debuted in 1964, became the standard during the 70's. Early in Elvis' career, Billboard credited Elvis with 2 #1 singles which Cash Box did not ("Hard Headed Woman" and "Big Hunk O' Love"), while Cash Box credited him with 3 #1 singles which Billboard did not ("Wear My Ring Around Your Neck", "Can't Help Falling In Love" and "Return To Sender"). Elvis' #1 totals remained 1 greater on Cash Box than on Billboard until after the '68 Comeback, when Cash Box awarded him 2 additional #1's: "In The Ghetto" and "Burning Love." Record World also awarded Elvis a final #1 with "Steamroller Blues" in 1973. From the mid-60's onward, Billboard showed a strong preference towards the Beatles (and other British Invasion acts), the Motown genre, and the wave of psychedelic/bubblegum pop, and an evident prejudice against Elvis, awarding him his final #1 on November 1, 1969 with "Suspicious Minds". Despite having sold more records in the 70's than in the 50's or 60's, Elvis never earned a single #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the entire decade. By the mid-70's, major discrepancies began to arise between the positions of his singles from one chart to the other, an extreme example being "Steamroller Blues", the leadoff single from "Aloha", the most celebrated and viewed live performance of not just Elvis' career, but in History! Despite having been written especially for Elvis by James Taylor (a favorite of Billboard), and having unarguably reached #1 on Billboard with the corresponding album, "Aloha From Hawaii", "Steamroller" barely scraped the bottom of the top 20(#17) on Billboard, while Cash Box gave Elvis another top 10(#10) & Record World another #1! Never-the less, you can't keep The King down & even after Elvis' death, he continued to have success on the Billboard "Sales" charts, earning 2 additional #1 Sales records (19th & 20th #1's), with the remixes of "A Little Less Conversation" and "Rubberneckin'" in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Unfortunately, Cash Box folded on November 16, 1996, but had it not, it is safe to assume, considering both singles reached #1 in more than 40 different countries, that Elvis would have enjoyed 2 more notches in his belt, earning a total of 23 Cash Box #1's. In spite of this, Elvis still ranks the #1 artist of all-time, in singles, albums, and combined, on all three major American publications, including Billboard. Quite a feat considering Billboards powers-to-be that tried to hold THE KING down! Elvis has had no less than 150 songs to appear on Billboard’s American charts. Of these, 114 were in the top forty, 40 were in
the top 10, and 20 went to number one. His number one singles spent a
total of 80 weeks at number one. These figures
are only for the Billboard pop charts in America. He was also a leading
artist in the American Country, R&B, and Gospel fields, and his
chart success in other countries was as remarkable. No other American artist sold more records abroad than Elvis Aron Presley. In the 10 countries in which Elvis was most successful (U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, Germany, France, Philippines, Japan and Italy), half are non-English speaking. Elvis is the only artist to have had multiple singles simultaneously reach #1 on all 3 Billboard genres (Hot 100, R&B and Country): "Hound Dog"(1956), "Don't Be Cruel"(1956), "Jailhouse Rock"(1957) and "All Shook Up"(1957). Of those 4, 2 made up the biggest selling combined A&B sides single of all-time, with an record-breaking 13 weeks at #1... "Hound Dog" b/w "Don't Be Cruel"(1956), while "Jailhouse Rock"(1957) was his biggest selling EP & "All Shook Up" was (1957) "Song Of The Year". Likewise was his debut single, "Heartbreak Hotel" (1956) "Song Of The Year". All this and none of it accounts for all his astonishing feats on the Billboard Country, R&B, Jukebox & Easy Listening, Adult Contemporary, or the Cash Box & Record World various charts!!Long Live The King...KING Of The Charts!!!!

A special word of thanks to Ron Barry, whose 1976 publication "All American Elvis" has greatly contributed to our research, and also has the distinction of being the only discography ever to be published during an artist's lifetime - another one of Elvis' many incredible feats! Additional thanks to Jerry Osborne; "Presleyana", Ernst Jorgensen; "Elvis Presley: A Life In Music: The Complete Recording Sessions" & Paul Combs; "ElvisRecords.com"!